Colour and Nourishment; An Edible Natural Dye Workshop

Spend a weekend dyeing table linens with edible plants, and also cook a meal with the same dye materials! 

Textiles and food are kin: both are crops that need sowing, harvesting, and processing; both are consumed and often wasted; both tend to basic human needs; both are ancient technologies & systems. Textiles intrinsically document the processes of food-making and consumption, carrying the stains, spatters, and spills that occur by way of tea towels, napkins, placemats, wash cloths, tablecloths, etc. This workshop will expand the ways that food resources can be used and experienced – softening the lines between permanence and ephemerality, and deepening our connection to the plants used to create our meals. These dyed linens will be records of the food we eat, and the plants that produce our nourishment. 

Workshop participants will learn how to scour, mordant, and dye fabrics with food waste & locally foraged, edible wild plants. Simultaneously, we will prepare a meal to eat together, using the same ingredients we are dyeing with. The brilliance of colour and nourishment will resonate as the meal is served upon a long table adorned with naturally dyed linens, dyed with the same ingredients that make up our meal.

Participants will take home a naturally dyed table setting – two napkins, two placemats, and a table square/runner.